Tour De France 2008 - Take The Tour Back

So who's watching this year? I've been taping everything and catching up late at night. The theme for this years tour is "take the tour back" in reference to the war on doping in cycling. Today one rider was arrested and dropped from the tour. I do think that after the last three years especially, the UCI and cycling as a whole have finally realized they need some quick and decisive action.

Now for the good stuff. If anyone was slightly interested only because of Lance, the good news is American cycling is strong in the Tour, both with riders or American teams. Team Columbia (offfshoot of Postal/ Discovery) and Garmin/ Chipotle (formerly Slipstream) are kicking some serious butt in the overall rider and team classifications.

For example, today:

Click to see Spoiler:

Cavendish(UK) won the stage for Team Columbia and Vandevelde (USA) is sitting perfectly in 4th place overall just :44 seconds behind the leader, Kim Kirchen...who happens to ride for Team Columbia.

Former American rider Jonathan Vaughters started Team Slipstream which morphed into Garmin/ Chipotle. They are being cited as having the best testing program in cycling.

Re: Tour De France 2008 - Take The Tour Back

I'm watching too, Speedy! I hope the UCI is able to get control because these past three years have been horrible for the sport. When doping stops being the norm, maybe things will change. *fingers crossed* I love watching the Tour and would hate to see the sport continue to be marginalized because of these scandals.

Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' - Isaac Asimov

I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"